Chapter Fifty-Two: Training, Broken Men and Opting Out
Colt held the lasso loosely in his hand as he slipped quietly down the alley toward the single rabid. The creature was currently walking headfirst into the brick wall again and again and again. Dull thuds echoed in the air with each impact.
Colt shook his head and chuckled silently. A dumb rabid would be the best way to start the training. Colt stood straight and began to twirl the lasso over his head, picking up speed quickly.
The rabid saw the movement and turned to face him. "Gnnaaaa!" it moaned as it headed Colt's way. Its forehead was a bloody mess of shredded skin because of the bricks and its lips and chin had been nearly ripped off.
Colt didn't hesitate before swinging the rope and tossing the loop over the rabid's head and around its shoulders. He pulled the rope tight and secured the rabid's arms at its sides.
It kept coming, eager for a meal, but Colt unhooked the second rope from his belt and strode forward, delivering a kick to the monsters chest that had it falling backward to the ground. In one swift motion, Colt secured the rabid's ankles and rendered it helpless on the ground.
He shook his head as it attempted to scoot across the dirt to him. Its bloody jaws gnashed loudly as it moaned and shrieked with desperation.
"That's pathetic." Colt stated blankly as he glanced at Ox. The big man nodded in agreement, his face looking a little green.
Colt grabbed the rabid by the ankles and began dragging it back onto the street and down the road toward the warehouse. Ox swung his club, protecting Colt from a few other wandering rabid that were close enough to pose a real threat. The moment the two men entered the warehouse with their catch, Susette hid behind Katherine while Lily took several quick steps back into the shadows.
"Colt, it's still alive!" Evangeline exclaimed.
Colt shrugged as he released his hold on the rabid and kicked its leg. "In a manner of speaking." He agreed.
"What exactly are we going to do with it?" Katherine questioned as she tried to get Susette to come out from behind her skirts.
Colt dragged the rabid to a post beside the wall and signaled for Ox to help him. Working together the two men stood the rabid up and secured it with a third rope to the post.
"We're not fighting with this one." Colt assured the group. "I want you women to learn a few things fighting with us men and each other before you try it with a rabid. I know that most of you have killed plenty rabid in the heat of the moment for self-preservation and that's good cuz it means I got less work to do with ya, but there are two of you that have no experience with rabid."
Colt knew this was a bit on the dark and morbid side however he knew of no better way to teach them about killing rabid than to let them practice on a rabid.
He looked at Susette who was peaking around Katherine's skirt and motioned her forward. Colt could see the fear in the little girl's eyes but he admired the way she walked forward with her head high; even if her steps were tinier than usual.
Colt turned his gaze to Lily as well and she hesitantly took her place beside Susette. "Alright, you two, when you look at what I brought in here, what do you see?"
"A sick person." Lily whispered.
Colt shook his head and followed her gaze. He took in the sight of the rabid; the bloodied head, the shredded jaw and lips, the gray, lifeless eyes that held no evidence of humanity and the way it kept snapping the air and jerking against the ropes holding its body to the post.
"That is not a person, Lily, not anymore." Colt assured her. When she still appeared doubtful he sighed. "My wife was bitten and turned." Lily's gaze immediately went to Evangeline and Colt shook his head. "Not Evangeline; my first wife. She turned and I didn't understand what was going on. She was not a person anymore. She tried to attack me and our daughter."
"What happened?" Susette asked quietly.
Colt felt the pain in his chest but it was no longer crippling. It had dulled over the last months and no longer felt as if it would kill him each time it struck. "I shot her."
"You shot your wife?" Lily gasped.
"In the head." Colt nodded. "That's the only way to kill them."
"They ain't people no more." Ox spoke up. "I had to kill my pa and Evangeline had to kill our mama. They turn into these monsters and they don't remember anything about who they used to be or what you meant to them."
Colt tipped his head to Ox and then looked back at Susette and Lily. Susette had moved a bit closer to the rabid and was studying it intently. Lily didn't appear quite so eager to get close.
"Now the only way to kill them is to take out the brain. If you cut its head off, it can still bite you." Colt informed them.
"It can?" Charlotte sounded surprised.
Colt nodded. "Yeah. When I lost my family I went on a rabid hunting rampage. I learned a lot about killing them."
"But if I shoot it in the leg it won't be able to chase me." Susette stated. Colt frowned down at the girl. A six year old shouldn't sound quite so confident about shooting somebody. Then again, maybe a six year old who had spent the last nearly four months of her life living in this hell on earth was a lot different than your average six year old from before.
"That would depend on how well you shot it in the leg." Colt replied. He pulled his knife and used it to point to the rabid's knee. "If you take out its knees then it won't be able to walk or run after you but it can still crawl so you're not completely safe. The only time you aim for the legs is if you're being overrun and just want to get away and for whatever reason you can't get to the head."
"Can I kill this one?" Susette asked and Colt shrugged as he looked at Evangeline. Evangeline just shrugged back, though her green eyes seemed a bit horrified by Susette's eagerness to kill the rabid. Honestly it surprised Colt as well but he knew it had to happen. She had to be ready, willing and able to protect herself if the need arose.
"Later when I'm ready for him to die he'll be all yours." Colt assured the girl. "But for now we're going to use our friend here to learn how to strike them with a shovel to get the best results." Colt patted the rabid on the shoulder, jerking his hand away as the monster turned its head and tried to bite him.
A knife was suddenly thrust into the rabid's face, sinking deeply through its eye and killing the creature. Colt stared in shock at Evangeline as she pulled the knife back out and gave him a guilty smile. "Sorry—" she mumbled. "—I thought he was going to bite you."
Colt found himself chuckling as he took her into his arms and kissed her head. "My hero," he whispered against her ear. He stood straight and addressed the group, most of which seemed amused. "I reckon we can practice blows just as easy on a dead one."
***
Comanche sat in the hot midday sun beside a clear prairie lake. A bee buzzed around his head and aunts scurried over his buckskin clad feet as they rushed about their daily duties. None of that mattered. Nothing mattered. Not anymore.
His whole life Comanche had prided himself on strength. He had prided himself on never breaking; never crying; never letting anything get the better of him.
He wasn't so strong anymore. Not now that he had lost his paleface. He had thought about getting rid of the name Comanche but had not been able to. Frankie had given him that name and he would wear it proudly for what time he had left.
He was her Comache, her crazy injun, and it was his fault she was dead.
Frankie had died to save Lily because the woman had thought he was in love with Lily. How very wrong she had been. If only Comanche could have swallowed his pride and gone to Frankie sooner. If only he told her what he knew she needed to hear then he would probably still have her.
But instead he had held onto his pride and refused to appear weak. He had refused to crawl for her; refused to beg for her; refused to even be the first to break the stubborn silence between them. Because of that foolishness, Comanche had lost the one woman who had ever touched his heart.
Comanche heard the twig snap behind him just before the moaning came to his ears. In one fluid motion, Comanche rose and pulled Frankie's hatchet from the holster on his hip. He turned to see the rabid stumbling toward him. It moved swiftly but Comanche was much faster.
Running at the rabid he let out a war cry and leapt upon in, driving the beast to the ground as he swung the hatchet again and again and again.
Blood and chunks of flesh flew into the air. Bits of bone hit Comanche in the chest and face as he continue to rain down blows long after the rabid had died and become still beneath him.
Over and over and over again, Comanche sunk the hatchet blade into the rabid's head and face. He ignored the aching in his arm; ignored the blood and gore splashing against his skin.
He screamed with a primal rage as he gave several more swings of the hatchet until finally he could no longer raise his arm.
Comanche fell away from the rabid and scooted away before drawing his knees up into his chest and swiping his bloody arm across his bloody face. The hatchet fell to the ground as Comanche buried his face in his hands and cried. It was the first time in his entire life that he had ever done so.
***
Evangeline could not remember a single other time when she had been so tired. Colt had been very serious about training them and she had swung so many shovels, hammers, clubs and rifles today that her arms were hanging uselessly at her sides; voicing complete refusal to peel the potatoes she was supposed to be readying for supper.
"That man is going to kill us." Katherine gasped as she took yet another break from stirring the biscuit dough.
"At least Evangeline was able to convince him we needed a break." Charlotte spoke up as she sat at the tiny table in the corner and went about doing the alterations to a pair of trousers. Colt had insisted that all the women wear them and so the sewing frenzy had begun to make men's trousers fit the women's more slender frames.
Evangeline smiled when she remembered the way Colt had laughed that morning when he'd come back from going on a 'pant run' and had returned with a pair of boys pants for Evangeline. His laughter had increased when the pants had come close to fitting Evangeline yet still needed a bit of hemming on the legs to fit her short stature.
"Where is Lily?" Evangeline asked as she glanced around and realized that the woman wasn't around. The men were gone into town for a run to gather up a few supplies. The town they were in was so large that it would take days to go through every building and because of the massive amount of rabid spread throughout the town, scavenging had to be done as stealthily as possible.
"Upstairs." Katherine replied quietly. "She locked herself back in her room as soon as we came back."
Evangeline chewed guiltily at her lip. No one had tried very hard to get to know Lily other than Comanche and now that he was gone Lily was alone. No one had tried to speak to her (other than Colt, and Evangeline knew that hadn't been to comfort the poor woman), and no one had bothered to ask her how she was after what had happened in the woods with Frankie.
"I'll go check on her." Evangeline sighed and motioned for Rachel to come take over the job of peeling the potatoes. Her aunt, who had not said more than three words aloud since Colt had threatened to feed her to the rabid, stood up from her chair in the corner and walked over to Evangeline, taking the knife from her hand without a word.
Evangeline walked out of the kitchen, not sure how she felt about her aunt any longer. She didn't truly know the woman and any love and loyalty she had felt simply because they shared blood had quickly been doused by her aunt's constant hatred and harshness toward those Evangeline cared about. Though that did not mean Evangeline was okay with what Colt had done that morning. She wasn't okay with it at all, but while Evangeline had not agreed with Colt's methods, she had to admit that they seem to have worked. And Evangeline knew that Colt would not have really let those rabid have Rachel—at least she hoped he wouldn't have.
Pushing those thoughts, and her worry about Colt and her brother being out in the town with the rabid, Evangeline lifted her skirts and climbed the staircase. She had no real idea of what she would say to Lily but knew that someone had to say something. Colt was the leader of the group and since Evangeline was his wife, it was her job to help. While she had never been a gang leader the way her husband had, Evangeline had been to plenty of brunches and teas with women who were heartbroken and needed a shoulder.
Taking a deep breath, her hand rapped upon Lily's door twice. Evangeline heard something that sounded like metal clattering against ceramic.
"Lily?" Evangeline called out as she knocked several more times. Nothing other than quiet sobs greeted her words and Evangeline felt a chill wash down her spine.
Something was very wrong.
"Lily!" she called out, beating harder at the door. She jiggled the knob but it was securely locked. "Lily!" she all but screamed when Lily's sobs became louder from inside the room.
Evangeline cursed her petite stature as she threw her body against the door, desperate to knock it in and get to Lily, who sounded in bad need of help.
She screamed for the other woman to open over and over again. Lily's sobs had grown quieter and much fainter. Boot steps pounded up the staircase and down the hall. Evangeline turned to see that the hallway was full of bodies but Colt was up front and center with his gun drawn. He was panting from exertion and his dark blue eyes were filled with a mixture of fear, confusion and anger.
"What the hell is going on?!" he demanded, slipping his gun back in the holster. "I was two buildings away and heard you screaming. I about killed myself getting here!"
"It's Lily!" Evangeline gasped with a wince. Her body was sore from slamming against the door so violently. "She won't open the door and I heard her crying..."
"Maybe she wants to be left alone." Colt stated.
Tears filled Evangeline's eyes as she shook her head. "Something's wrong, Colt—I just know something's wrong."
Colt sighed and moved past her. He banged his fist loudly on the door three times. "Lily!" There was no response. Not even her sobs could be heard any longer. "Godammit, Lily, open the door."
"Colt—" Evangeline whispered and he growled before taking a few steps back and kicking out, knocking the door in with a crunch of splintering wood.
"Shit...." Colt stated. Evangeline looked past him and her heart ceased to beat as her stomach turn and bile rose in her throat.
Evangeline was faintly aware of Colt telling everyone other than Silas to go back downstairs and keep Susette away.
Evangeline stepped into the bedroom and glanced at the bloody dagger lying in the mauve washbasin. Droplets of crimson liquid led away from the basin, becoming larger puddles on the green and white floral carpet.
Evangeline's eyes followed the growing droplets and puddles to the corner where Lily sat lifelessly propped against the wall. Her pale blue eyes seemed to be staring into Evangeline's, though Evangeline knew they would never see anything again.
Lily had ended her life with two swift cuts to her inner thighs just beside her groin. Blood was pooled beneath her and long rivulets streaked her bare legs.
"Come on, Evangeline.... You don't need to be in here." Colt urged as he grabbed her shoulder and tried to pull her backward.
Evangeline's feet might as well have been nailed to the floorboards. She couldn't move; couldn't breathe.
Silas slid past her and pressed his fingers to Lily's throat, checking for a pulse. Evangeline knew he wouldn't find one. There was no life in those blue eyes staring back at her green ones.
"Come on, Evangeline." Colt urged a bit more sternly as he tugged her backward, giving her feet no choice but to move with him.
Once in the hallway, Colt blocked her view of the room. Ox was still standing in the hall, his face pale as a ghost. "Ox, take her downstairs and get her some water." Colt urged.
"She...She took her own life..." Evangeline gasped. Colt nodded as he looked down at her.
He laid a gentle hand on her cheek. "I'm sorry you had to see that, sweetheart. Go downstairs and I'll be down as soon as I can."
Evangeline nodded and swallowed hard. Her stomach was churning as she thought of all that blood.....
"Come on now, Evie... I don't want to be up here." Ox urged and Evangeline could hear the sickness in her brother's voice. She nodded and turned away from Colt, allowing Ox to lead her away with sickness, despair and guilt all raging in her heart.